Thursday, June 3, 2010

Day 6 Tokyo Disneyland

Today was an early morning as we were going to Disneyland. We decided that tomorrow we would go to Mt Fuji and booked a tour. Little did we know at the time that my credit card failed. I first tried to use my travelex card but it didn't work. Then i tried my australian one and had been told it was successful. First of all we had to go and get money for Cara and Kate. We headed off to the post office after discovering this was one place they could get money from. While we were there, i bought some stamps. They both had trouble getting money out so we headed back to the hostel to ring the bank to find out why. I bought a phone card to call Australia while the girls logged into their account to find there was nothing wrong. Eventually they rang and got hold of the bank in Australia to find that it was mastercard that was the problem. It had gone down late the night before and was still not working.

After some sighs of relief knowing now that it was not their cards, we set off for another post office. We got directions from the hostel worker and set off for where he told us. His directions were useless and led us on a wild goose chase which involved me asking 3 more times for directions to the Yubinkyoku. thank goodness for the lonelyplanet phrase book and dictionary as my memory was not that good after 10 years.

We eventually went into the station and they gave us directions again. We walked in the right direction and eventually saw the sign. The problem now was crossing the road, that was fun as we had to cross about 6 times just to get to the other side. Don't you just love big cities. Argghh!!!

Eventually we made it inside and they both got some money. Yay. Now the day could begin. So we set off for the train station, where we would catch one train to Akihabara, one train to Tokyo adn then one train to Disneyland.

Eventually we made it and by the time we got there it was about 12.00pm. WE set off inside with the map in hand. Not knowing what to expect i was a little apprehensive as I don't really like rollercoaster ride type things too much but so as it seems do the Japanese. We went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride which was gentle cruise through the pirate underworld with some really good sets that looked very real. Then we set off to find some food. Not being able to decide quickly, we wandered around looking for things, eventually we settled on Fried chicken.

After food we decided on a gentle ride as we did not know yet that all rides were gentle. WE lined up for what seemed like an eternity. We took a cruise through the jungle with the whole trip in Japanese. I picked up a little bit and mostly from the guide's mannerisms but some words too. Kate and Cara picked up thank you, and a couple of others.

After this we wandered again trying to find rides that didn't have too long a waiting time. Then we stumbled on everyone sitting down in the middle of the paths. WE discovered that it was a parade so we sat down to wait. WE watched the parade and then tried to leave quickly to avoid the crowds. It wasn't to be. Most of the rides we didn't go on because the waiting time was just too long. So we wandered picking up food here and there and drinks when we go too hot as it was very warm.

Eventually we all got to the point where we were good and were just about to leave when we stumbled upon more people sitting down. Another parade was going to begin so we took the opportunity to rest our tired feet and sat down and waited for the parade.

After the parade we wandered through the castle and then went into some souvenir places. We spent awhile in there and by the time we came out we were well and truly ready to go and it was almost 6pm. We went through the final souvenir shop and then made our way back to the train station where we would get a train to Tokyo, a train to Akihabara, a train to Asakusabashi and then walk. All this on our JR passes so we didn't pay a cent for the transport which was really good. It has been a blessing having had the JR pass and they have been well and truly used already.

Finally we made it home and decided we needed something for dinner so headed out after awhile for something to eat. Wandering aimlessly didn't get us very far so we got something from the 7 eleven.

This morning we had booked a tour to Mt Fuji. I hadn't checked my email straight away as we needed to get going. I checked that night when we returned to find that my credit card had been denied. Then came the hard part of trying to check whether we were booked or not. I used the phone card we had got this morning and rang the number to find i was calling America. They told me that we were not booked and that the agency required at least 48 hours notice as it was so it would never have worked anyway. This meant we had to change our plans for tomorrow. We found another tour and booked that for Saturday instead giving them not quite 48 hours even though it didn't say anywhere that it required 48 hours notice. So tomorrow we would go to Harajuku to look for Harajuku girls and then hit up Akihabara (Electric Town).